1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an earplug and an apparatus with the earplugs, and more particularly to an apparatus, wherein the earplugs are partly consisted of replaceable components and extended with additive devices two components of the apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
People now prefer living in an environment without undesired interference. For example, some people use earplug earphones to listen to music or to make phone calls for avoiding any interference from their surroundings and improving their listening at the same time. Living or working in a noisy environment over a period of time makes a person loses efficiency, reduces his memory capability, ever anxious and increases the risk of cardiovascular disease accordingly. Some people use earphones to listen to music or make phone calls to avoid the interference from noise in their surroundings. Therefore, some people need to wear earplugs to block the some noise all the while under this circumstance.
In general, people often wear isolating earplugs made of resilient foam and insert the earplugs respectively into the ear canals. However, the isolating earplugs block the air between the inside and outside of a person's the ear canal and make the person uncomfortable after a period of wearing the earplugs.
With reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, improved earplugs (10) have been developed by NOISE Audiophone Corp. in Germany. The improved earplugs (10) effectively lower the surrounding noise and allow air to pass between the inside and outside the ear canal. The earplug (10) comprises a noise-reducing valve (12) and an insert (14) in what to be mounted the noise-reducing valve (12). The noise-reducing valve (12) is an adjustable noise-reducing valve, has an open inlet end (120) and an open outlet end (122). A passage (not shown) is defined through the noise-reducing valve (12) and communicates with the open inlet and outlet ends (120, 122). A mounting hole (140) is defined in one end of the insert (14), which abuts the noise-reducing valve (12), and allows the open outlet end (122) of the noise-reducing valve (12) to be mounted in the mounting hole (140). Another end of the insert (14) opposite to the end with the mounting hole (140) is an open inserting end (142). The open inserting end (142) has a tapered curved shape to be inserted into an ear canal. A passage (144) is defined through the insert (14) and communicates with the mounting hole (140). When the open inserting end (142) of the earplug (10) is inserted into a human ear canal, noisy sound can only pass into the open inlet end (120) of the noise-reducing valve (12) due to a seal between the insert (14) and the ear canal. The noise becomes weaker when passing through the noise-reducing valve (12) (The means for weakening the noise is implemented by tapering the cross-sectional area of the passage in the noise-reducing valve (12) to attenuate noisy sound.) and then passes through the passage (144) into the ear canal.
The earplug (10) reduces the excessive noise passing into the ear canal of a wearer and allows the wearer to still hear normal voice. In additional, the passage through the noise-reducing valve (12) cooperates with the passage (144) through the insert (14) to allow the earplug (10) to ventilate the ear canal. The pressure inside the ear canal is the same as that in the atmosphere and makes the wearer comfortable during the period of wearing the earplugs. Before manufacturing a pair of the earplugs (10), impression of the left and right ear canal of a wearer are taken respectively, and then the inserts (14) are manufactured with medical anti-allergic otoplastic or silicon material corresponding to the impression of the left and right ear canals respectively. Then, the noise-reducing valve (12) is mounted in the insert (14).
Preferably, a connectible element (16) is mounted on each of the inserts (14) and is connected to an attachment such as a cord so the attachment connects the earplugs (10) to each other. The earplugs (10) can be marked respectively with colors or characters to distinguish the right and left earplugs (10). However, the earplugs (10) must be tailor-made individually and cannot be mass-produced accordingly. A person being disturbed by noise is usually not patient with the multiple procedure and the longer lead-time of the tailor-made earplugs (10) and is hence less willing to take it. Although the earplugs (10) can help the management for the company to comply with the labor, health and safety law, it can not be a handover item of job change. The earplugs (10) will obviously increase the production costs of a company, whose employees change frequently, and a single new employee will have to repeat the whole process by all means. The earplugs have poor applicability.